


Were We Ever This Young?

by letsjustsee



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Anal Sex, Auror Louis, Baker Harry, Bottom Louis, Coming Out, Established Relationship, First Kiss, Flashbacks, Fluff, Post Hogwarts AU, Rimming, Smut, Top Harry, married
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-17 04:13:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9303683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsjustsee/pseuds/letsjustsee
Summary: “How did it go?” he asked, still not having gotten any hints from Louis’ face.“Obviously it went amazing, Harold,” Louis said, reaching for Harry’s hand, “Was there any doubt I would smash it?”Immediately after finishing his sentence a young girl burst out of the classroom behind Louis, pushing through her peers, sobbing her eyes out.Harry and Louis both took her in, watching as she rushed through the crowd and disappeared behind the many bodies. Harry looked at Louis in confusion, about to voice his concerns before Louis cut him off.“Teenagers, am I right?” Louis said casually, “So bloody sensitive. You hungry? Let’s go.”And with that, he pulled Harry through the groups of students by his hand, Harry too shocked to utter a word.Hogwarts AU in which Harry and Louis both return to give talks to seventh years about the 'real world' with slightly varying results. Inspired by the Chilton scene between Rory and Paris in the new Gilmore Girls.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic, and I had a blast writing it, so I hope you enjoy reading it!
> 
> I also just made a [tumblr](http://letsjustsee.tumblr.com), and have no idea what I'm doing there - so please come say hi!  
> If you enjoy this, please [reblog](https://letsjustsee.tumblr.com/post/155789956512/were-we-ever-this-young-author-letsjustsee-word) the photoset!

“Do we really have to do this Harold?” Louis whined, as he drug his feet in the dewy grass, the castle turrets looming up ahead in the distance, mocking Louis’ every step. Harry’s hand held tight to Louis’, and he pulled him forward as best he could given the strength of Louis’ resistance.

“Yes, Lou,” Harry said for the tenth time that morning, his patient and calm voice irking Louis even more. “This is an incredible opportunity for us, and you don’t turn down an offer from Professor McGonagall.”

“That’s great, Harry, but I don’t understand why I have to go too,” Louis said, allowing Harry to pull him along through Hogsmeade, the early morning fog rising around them. “Can’t you have just gone to talk to these children while I stayed at home in bed? I swear, Harry, my one day off in ages and you drag me hours from London-”

“We apparated, Louis,” Harry said, cutting Louis off mid-complaint, “It will take us one, two hours at most, and then we’ll apparate home and I promise to make you tea and bring it to you in bed.” Louis continued to grumble under his breath, but dutifully followed his husband as they drew nearer to the Hogwarts gates.

When they received the owl from Professor McGonagall asking for volunteers to come and speak to students about what their careers looked like post-wizarding school, Harry was ecstatic. He immediately responded and signed up not only himself, but Louis as well.

(This had resulted in quite a bit of sulking, and only when Harry threatened to throw out all of his tea did Louis finally stop whining. He quietly came and curled up next to Harry on the couch as he admitted in a shy voice that he didn’t think he would be good at it, and what if these kids thought he was silly, and what if they didn’t like him? Harry’s heart had broken a little at that, and he spent the next hour slowly kissing every part of Louis’ body as he reassured him that he was perfect, and funny, and extremely loveable, and these students were going to be so entertained by every part of him. By the time he was done, they were both breathless from kissing each other, and Louis forgot all about his insecurities as he asked Harry to take him to bed.)

“Plus, aren’t you excited to visit our old stomping grounds?” Harry asked, as Louis walked with him hand in hand through the gates, “We can reminisce about when we fell in love Lou.” Harry had such a tone of fondness in his voice as he looked down at Louis and squeezed his hand excitedly, Louis had to huff out a laugh despite his sour mood.

“You’re such a sap sometimes, love,” Louis said, rolling his eyes kindly at his husband, but squeezing his hand back at the same time. Harry smiled and looked away, because he knew that Louis would never admit to it, but he was as much of a sap as Harry was (if not a little more private about it).

Walking into the entrance hall, Harry and Louis stopped and looked around. Eyes stopping on the door to the Great Hall, Harry started chuckling.

“What’s funny?” Louis asked, as he turned to look where Harry’s eyes were.

“Nothing,” Harry said, joy written all over his face. “I’m just thinking about the first day that I met you. Do you remember the first thing you said to me?”

\--

“You know they keep trolls in the dungeons here, so as Slytherins we’re probably going to have to fight a few this year,” Louis said, as he slid into a seat next to a small, curly headed boy in his year. Louis had just been sorted into Slytherin, and he was nervous. He was so nervous that he decided right then and there to try and look tough in front of his fellow first years, to try and impress someone to make friends, and this terrified looking one happened to be the lucky recipient.

The small boy whipped his head around, turning almost completely in his seat from the front of the room where he was watching the sorting to stare into Louis’ eyes with horror. Louis didn’t expect such a reaction, he thought maybe he would get a laugh out of this boy and they could be friends, but the small boys’ eyes started to fill with tears.

“My mummy said there wasn’t anything like that here,” the boys lip trembled, and his voice shook. Louis had seen his younger sisters do this enough to know that his unsuspecting victim was about to burst into tears. “Are you being serious?”

Louis wanted to say he was being serious, he wanted to keep up this tough exterior, but something about this boy’s wide eyes and authentic reaction to being scared had Louis breaking down.

“Nah mate,” Louis said, pasting a smile on his face and gently placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder, “I was kidding. It’s alright.” He patted the boy, trying to be comforting, hoping his tears wouldn’t start falling. The sorting was finishing up, and Louis didn’t want to be responsible for all of Slytherin’s attention turning to this first year crying, because that would only make it worse.

“Plus,” Louis added, still determined not to mess up his goal of making friends, “If there were anything like that, I could protect you. Trolls don’t scare me.” Trolls terrified Louis, but he saw the boy’s face starting to loosen up, and a smile was peeking through, so he figured it was okay to tell a small lie.

The boy brought his hands up to his face and rubbed furiously at his eyes, trying to make what tears still lingered go away.

He took a shuddering breath as he dropped his hands, “Sorry for getting upset, I’ve just been really scared all day. My mummy and sister said there’s nothing to be afraid of, but I cried in the loo when I was on the train, and then getting sorted was scary. I’m glad I’m in Slytherin though, my sister Gemma is over there, she’s a Slytherin too. I’m Harry. What’s your name?”

Harry spoke slowly, and usually Louis was too impatient not to interrupt people (his mum had warned him so often not to interrupt that he could hear her saying it now), but something about Harry’s earnestness impressed Louis. He would have never admitted to crying to anyone, especially not a stranger, but it didn’t elicit sympathy when it came from Harry. Instead, Louis thought that he seemed very brave.

“I’m Louis,” he said, removing his hand from Harry’s shoulder and holding it out to shake. Harry ignored his hand and instead went to wrap his arms around Louis’ shoulders. Louis froze, unsure what to do, but he tried to catch up and pat Harry on the back before he pulled away. When he did, Harry had a huge smile on his face, completely changing his demeanor and Louis noticed himself smiling back.

“Thanks for sitting next to me Louis,” Harry said, turning his body back towards the table as the feast was beginning. “I’ve been so nervous all day that nobody would want to talk to me.”

“Well of course I would want to talk to you Curly,” Louis said, turning to face the table as well. “We’re going to be best friends.”

Harry turned his head to look at Louis and an incredible smile broke out onto his face. He didn’t respond to Louis, but Louis could tell that he was pleased. They both began to load up their plates, as the older students around them chattered about summer vacations and welcomed each other back. The noise in the Great Hall continued to rise as the feast was in full swing, but Louis couldn’t think about anything except the boy next to him.

“Hey Harry?” He said quietly, turning to look at his new friend.

“Yeah Louis?”

“I’m glad I was sorted into Slytherin, too.”

\--

Once Louis stopped smiling, he turned towards Harry and took a deep breath.

“Well, I guess you’re really making me do this,” he said, placing his hands on the taller man’s hips.

“I am,” Harry said, placing his hands on Louis’ shoulders and rubbing gently up and down his arms, “And you are going to give those seventh year students the most incredible talk of their lives. Because you’re the best auror and husband in the entire world.”

“Very cheesy, Harold,” Louis said, his eyes crinkling from his smile, “But I assume you want me to stick to the basics of my career, and not my husbandly anecdotes? Unless you think it would be appropriate to slip in the time we snuck out during our seventh year and you had me on my knees in that corridor behind that tapestry of-“

“Good morning gentleman,” a curt voice sounded from the bottom of the steps.

Louis and Harry both jumped (Harry maybe let out a small shriek) and pushed away from each other as they watched a stern looking Professor McGonagall crossing the entrance hall.

“I meant to meet you at the gate, but I see you’ve beaten me here. Follow me please.”

Harry and Louis looked at each other with red faces as McGonagall turned around once again and began up a set of stairs, silently screaming at each other with their eyes – Harry, clearly embarrassed about Louis’ slip up and Louis silently defending himself against whatever diatribe Harry had ready for him.

“Gentlemen, if you would please, classes are set to begin shortly,” McGonagall called to them, breaking them out of their wordless argument, as they shuffled towards her trying to collect themselves. “Now, Mr. Tomlinson,” Professor McGonagall turned towards Louis as they both stopped and looked up at her from the bottom of the steps, “You’ll be headed up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom on the third floor. Professor Wilkes is expecting you.” Louis nodded in understanding.

“And Mr. Tomlinson,” she said, turning towards Harry (who preened at being called Tomlinson, and Louis rolled his eyes fondly), “The potions classroom is ready for you, Professor Garrison knows you’re on your way.”

“Thank you professor,” Harry said politely, bowing his head in a slightly embarrassed gesture, “And thank you for giving us this opportunity, we’re both very excited.”

“Well,” said Professor McGonagall, “We do appreciate alumni returning to give our students a glimpse of the real world. Now if you’ll be off, classes are starting very soon. I expect you can find your way to the classrooms?”

“Oh, we’ll be fine, absolutely,” Louis said with a grin. With that, McGonagall nodded once and began her ascent up the rest of the staircase. Louis let out a long breath, and turned towards Harry to give him one last goodbye before they parted ways.

“Oh, and Mr. Tomlinson?” McGonagall stopped halfway up the staircase to turn and look at the two men below her, Harry and Louis turning their heads to acknowledge her. “Best to stick to the career anecdotes only, I think.” Her eyes glinted like she was holding back a smirk, but she turned away so quickly it was impossible to tell.

Harry and Louis stared at each other, Harry’s mouth hanging open in shock. “Oh my god,” he said, burrowing his head into Louis’ neck, “she definitely heard you say that. I can’t believe it.”

Louis chuckled as he pat Harry reassuringly. “It’s fine love. She’s just taking the piss, I can tell. She loved it.” Harry rolled his eyes. “You’ll meet me back here after you’re done?”

“Of course,” Harry said, raising his head to look Louis in the eye. “You’re going to do so well, I wish I could listen in.”

“Well, obviously I’m going to do well, I am amazing,” Louis said, smiling as he rubbed Harry’s arms tenderly. “Now get going, don’t want to keep all those aspiring potion makers waiting.” Harry glanced around the entrance hall quickly, and seeing no one around he ducked down to give Louis a quick peck on the lips.

“I love you,” Harry said, hugging Louis one last time. He turned to walk in the direction of the dungeons, and Louis smiled as he watched him walk away.

“Love you too,” Louis called, and Harry glanced over his shoulder with a massive smile before disappearing around a corner. Louis took a deep breath and looked around. He guessed he had better just get this over with.

\--

Walking towards the dungeons felt surreal to Harry. He had done it countless times before, walking to and from class with friends, sneaking out late with Louis, sneaking back in early with him, avoiding Peeves in the corridors as they tried and failed to quiet their giggles.

Everything he had experienced at Hogwarts, Louis had been by his side. Meeting him their very first night at the welcome feast had been important, Harry had always felt that, and he smiled as he thought about their seven years of memories as students roaming these halls.

Harry had come to Hogwarts as a shy, scared eleven year old, but being around Louis made him feel brave and important, like someone who mattered. Mattered to Louis at least, and that was all that Harry really cared about.

“Come on Chels, we’re going to be late for class,” he heard a girl call up ahead to her dawdling friend.

Harry recognized the corridor as leading to the Slytherin common room, and he couldn’t help but smile. Hogwarts had been his home for so many years, but the Slytherin common room was the heart of it all. It was where he spent lazy Saturday mornings trying to read while Louis threw bits of paper at him to get him to pay attention, where Niall and Liam would lounge around with him and Louis over Christmas break when everyone else had gone home.

It was where he first admitted to himself, and later to Louis, that he didn’t particularly want to be with girls, and he only really thought about boys like that.

Harry’s eyes filled with tears as he thought back on the terrifying moment during his fifth year that he snuggled up to Louis in their dormitory and spilled his heart to him.

\--

“Lou, I- I have to-,” Harry struggled to speak, his voice thick with tears that hadn’t fallen yet, but it was only a matter of time, “-have to tell you something.”

He finally managed to choke out the words, but his heart was hammering in his chest. The dormitory was dark, evening had fallen, but most of their classmates were down at dinner or lounging around in the common room. Louis and Harry were cocooned in Louis’ bed, the thick, dark green drapes drawn around them, secluding them from the rest of the world.

Louis had noticed immediately when he entered the common room earlier that something was off. Harry was by himself in a corner, pretending to read a textbook, but he didn’t look up when Louis plopped down in front of him trying to get his attention. He only had to glance at Harry for a moment to know that something was troubling his best friend, and he immediately yanked Harry up without pretense and dragged him to his bed.

They had a habit of doing this, when one of them was upset: the other would wrap themselves around them in their warm beds, and cuddle them until they talked about it or until they felt better. Louis had immediately drawn Harry into his embrace, pulling the heavy comforter up around them until they could just barely make out each other’s eyes in the dark space.

Louis rubbed at Harry’s curls trying to soothe him, “You can tell me anything, love. You know that.”

Harry did know that. Louis had been there through everything – the first four years of their time at Hogwarts, Louis had never let Harry fall, never made him feel like he was ever alone. People always found their friendship odd, maybe a bit too close, but neither of them ever questioned it. They were each other’s favorites, their biggest comforts outside of their families, and it always just made sense.

But this- this was something that Harry was scared of. Something that he hadn’t said out loud to anyone yet. He wanted to tell Louis before anyone else knew, and he had tried to practice all day which only resulted in frustrated tears in front of a mirror and Harry secluding himself in that corner until Louis found him.

“I don’t know how to say it,” Harry admitted, closing his eyes as Louis continued to stroke his hair in a way that helped to relax him a bit.

“Well, you don’t have to just come right out and say it,” Louis said, talking gently.

Everyone always got Louis wrong, at least in Harry’s opinion. Everyone thought he was just loud, loud, loud – which he was a lot of the time – but he was also soft, and gentle, and perfect at reminding Harry that everything was going to be okay. Harry felt so special when Louis would get quiet around him, because he knew it meant he trusted him enough to let his guards down.

“Why don’t you tell me a story? It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to get there. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

Harry let go of a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He could do this. He could talk to Louis about this, he didn’t have to feel like it was a crushing weight on his chest anymore.

“Okay,” Harry said quietly, shuffling in bed a little bit to get closer to Louis. “Well, do you remember in third year how you and I made that promise that we wouldn’t kiss anybody until we talked about it with each other? And I was scared of kissing anyone, so you promised that you would wait until I had had mine first, so that I wouldn’t feel bad about it?”

“Mmhmm,” Louis agreed, petting Harry’s hair, wondering where this was going.

Harry sighed, “Well, last week that girl Sarah- from Ravenclaw? Well, she uh, kept trying to talk to me, right? And she- she would strike up conversation at the weirdest times. And I thought, like, she was just trying to be friendly, so I- uh, I just tried to be friendly back,” Harry took another deep breath and kept going, “but her and her friends would always, I don’t know, like uh- giggle when I was around? And, and whisper to each other, and it just made me feel weird.”

Harry took a very long time to get this out, but Louis was used to it. He patiently waited through the pauses and the dropped words, scratching gently at Harry’s curls without stopping because he knew it would soothe him. Louis made an encouraging noise to keep him going, letting him know he was listening.

Harry took a deep breath, forcing himself to become steadier in his speech.

“Well,” he continued, emboldened by Louis’ calming presence, “this morning I was on my way to class after lunch, and she pulled me into that corridor behind the tapestry of what’s his name- the bald monk with the weird eye?”

Louis’ hand stilled in Harry’s hair. Harry tried not to let it spike his nerves as he continued.

“And she started saying all these things, about how she liked me, about how she could tell that I liked her too, that her friends said it was obvious. She started talking about how she told all her friends that she bet I wanted to kiss her, and she started cornering me. I didn’t know what to do.”

Louis had stopped moving altogether, almost seemed like he stopped breathing, and Harry was so scared because this wasn’t even the part that was supposed to freak Louis out. He didn’t know why Louis would have panicked at this part in the story, but he was on a roll and he didn’t think he could stop.

“Well,” Louis said, startling Harry, “did you kiss her?”

“Wha- no. No, Lou,” Harry said, confused. Louis let out a giant breath, and began stroking Harry’s hair again.

“Okay, love,” he said, soothingly, “It’s alright, what happened next?”

“Well, I- I bolted. I, uh, I was scared and she was getting so close to me, I sort of,” Harry swallowed, “I sort of pushed her, and I ran away. I think I yelled that I was sorry, but I can’t remember now if I really did or if I just thought about it.”

Louis smiled at Harry, moving his hand down from its position in Harry’s hair to rest on his neck.

“Harry,” he said, “listen to me. You did nothing wrong. She shouldn’t have cornered you like that, but if you’re worried about what people will think, it’s okay. We can go and apologize to her if you want, but you shouldn’t be upset over something silly like a botched first kiss. There will be other opportuni-“

“No, Louis,” Harry said, surprising Louis with his forceful interruption. Harry definitely wasn’t one to interrupt, and certainly not in such a tone. “That’s not what I’m upset about.”

“Oh, uh, okay,” Louis said, very unsure of himself now. “Well, what is it then?”

Even in the relative darkness of the room, Harry’s eyes visibly filled with tears and he could do nothing to stop the first few from falling out onto the pillow. A few of them landed on Louis’ other arm which was wedged between the two boys.

“Harry, love,” Louis said, the worry in his voice evident, “please don’t cry. Whatever it is, it’s okay.”

“I just don’t want to hold you back,” Harry said, his voice thick and a bit garbled from his crying.

“Hold me back? What do you mean? You’re not holding me back, I don’t-“

“You’re so good to me, and so patient, and you probably could have kissed loads of girls by now,” Harry said, his voice rising in pitch as his tears now fell down in earnest, “but I don’t think I’m going to kiss a girl anytime soon. I don’t think I’m going to kiss anyone. I- I just,” Harry took a deep shuddering breath as he sobbed out, “I think I like boys.”

Harry immediately dove forward, burying his face into Louis’ neck as he loudly sobbed. Louis felt the warm tears hitting his skin and sliding down to his shoulder, his chest. He dislodged his other arm from underneath of them and wrapped Harry up completely in a tight embrace.

“Shh,” he said, trying so hard to comfort his best friend, “Harry, love, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”

He let Harry cry into his neck, rubbing his back slowly and softly whispering things to him about how much he loved him, how good a person he was, how there was nothing to be upset about. Slowly, Harry’s sobs slowed down and quieted, and finally he was just hiccupping every minute or so as he tried to regulate his breathing.

“There,” Louis said, pulling back slightly to look down at Harry’s face, “you’re okay. I’m here.”

“You-,” Harry hiccupped once again and took a deep breath, “you don’t care?”

“What?” Louis pulled back even more so they were looking each other face to face, “Why would I care about that? I mean, I _care_ , of course I care, but not like that. Was that what you were crying about? You thought I would care that you like boys?”

Harry backed up slightly, just enough to keep Louis’ arms around him, but so that they could comfortably talk to each other once again.

“I- I don’t know. I guess now that I’ve said it, it doesn’t seem so scary,” he said, shrugging one shoulder up. “I just never said it out loud to anyone but myself, and- I don’t know. I’m sorry Lou, I hope you’re not mad that I was scared to tell you.”

“Of course I’m not mad, love,” Louis said, giving Harry a warm smile, “The first time I met you, you almost cried because you were scared of trolls, and what did I tell you?”

Harry chuckled wetly and looked Louis in the eye as he said, “You told me I didn’t have to be scared because you would protect me.”

“Exactly,” Louis said, taking one arm off Harry’s back to poke at his cheek where he knew his dimple would appear. “And it’s still true. I know it was hard to tell me, and it’s okay that you were scared, but now we’re both here. And I’ll protect you from whatever you’re scared of, no matter what.”

Harry smiled widely at that, his dimple appearing just underneath Louis’ finger. They just looked at each other for a few more beats, Harry’s heartbeat finally returning to normal.

But then his smile faltered a bit as he blurted out, “But I still don’t want to hold you back, Lou. You don’t have to wait for me to kiss anyone.”

Louis sighed, and his eyes narrowed a bit, as his brow furrowed like he was frustrated with something. Harry hoped it wasn’t him.

“Hazza,” Louis said, gentle still, “I don’t care about that. I meant what I said, even if it was almost two years ago. And it doesn’t change now that it’s going to be a boy you’re kissing.” Louis moved his arm back around Harry, hugging him just a little closer as he talked. “I reckon I could even help you out now that we know what you like, find you a right gentleman to pursue, eh?”

Harry’s stomach dropped at that, a feeling deep in his gut that felt a bit like disappointment. But maybe it was just nerves. That’s what it must have been.

“No,” he said quietly, not letting Louis continue. He knew he could let it happen – Louis would be the perfect person to find someone who wanted to kiss Harry back, he was outgoing and he knew everyone, but something stopped him.

“Not- not now,” he continued, so softly it’s a wonder Louis could even hear him. He raised his hand from where it had been resting on Louis’ shoulder and lightly placed it on Louis’ cheek. “This- this is enough for now. You knowing, and- and telling you. This moment is- it’s enough. If- if that’s okay?”

Harry thought he saw Louis’ eyes shining with wetness, but it could have been a trick of the dim light. He wasn’t able to figure it out before Louis pulled him close to his chest, hugging him tightly, safely.

Yeah, it’s-,” Louis’ voice sounded rougher than before, quieter. He took a deep breath and buried his nose in Harry’s curls.

“For me, too. It’s- it’s enough for me too, love.”

\--

When Louis left the entrance hall and headed upstairs towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, he decided to take his time. No point in rushing, right? They would just have to wait for him, the guest speaker, to get started. _You’re just stalling_ , a tiny voice in his head (that sounded suspiciously like his husband) called out, and he rolled his eyes at himself even though he was alone.

“Alright,” Louis quietly whispered, because even though no one was around he didn’t want to get caught talking to himself, “Just do it Tomlinson. You’re just going to go in there and get it the fuck over with.”

The mental pep talk helped a bit, and Louis picked up the rate of his steps as he climbed towards the third floor. Despite having been out of school for ten years at this point ( _Shit, has it really been ten years?_ Louis stifled the unpleasant thought), he still seemed to innately know his way around the castle. He silently congratulated himself for taking advantage of all the time he had at Hogwarts to get to know its layout.

Sure, he had been caught a few times by teachers after hours, but for the most part he had perfected his stealthy maneuvering (and he would argue to the death that he was only ever caught because his baby deer of a boyfriend at the time couldn’t stumble through the dark without knocking things over or giggling. Truly, his now-husband had only graduated to a teenage deer at best, still mostly just limbs).

He smiled as he saw a couple of students walking ahead of him, hand in hand, meandering their way to class without what seemed like any real intent to get there soon. He could relate. When he and Harry got together during fifth year, they were constantly getting points taken from Slytherin for missing the start of class. They just sometimes felt like they couldn’t stand to not be touching, and in the hallways and corridors they could do it all they wanted (well, within reason and depending on who was around).

Out of Louis’ peripheral he caught a glimpse of a colorful tapestry, and a quick glance had his head snapping back around with his smile growing. It was that stupid bald monk with the weird eye, and Louis let out a chuckle.

Once Harry came out to him in their fifth year, it had only taken Louis about a month of wondering why he felt extra clingy when Harry would talk about boys to figure his own feelings out. To be fair, Harry didn’t bring up his love life much, and always seemed a little hesitant despite Louis begging him to not feel weird about it (they would later laugh at how stupidly in love with each other they already were, skirting around their feelings like a couple of idiots).

One of Louis’ favorite anecdotes to bring up to Harry was the comparison between their two coming out stories – Harry, weepy and quiet in the solitude of their dormitory, and Louis, brash and annoyed, behind that stupid tapestry with hundreds of students only feet away.

\--

“Wha- what the hell Lou,” Harry said, as he stumbled into the stone wall of the alcove behind the tapestry, “What’s got you so pushy?”

Louis had grabbed Harry immediately after Transfiguration class, not even allowing him proper time to close up his bag before he was dragging the curly-haired boy down the corridors, elbowing his way through people with a huffy and determined look on his face.

Now that he had pushed Harry into the small, secluded area, and the tapestry had fallen back into place hiding them from the masses, he cast a hasty _muffliato_ spell behind him. It didn’t ease any of his nerves though, and he began to pace (albeit with much difficulty) in the small space, with short, choppy breaths coming audibly through his nose.

Louis knew, objectively, that he was being a bit ridiculous, but he just couldn’t help it. He was angry. No, maybe angry wasn’t right. He was upset, definitely. Confused, for sure. And despite the questioning and somewhat alarmed look on Harry’s face, he needed to talk to his best friend about it. There was nobody else who was going to help sort out what was going on in Louis’ head better than the boy in front of him.

“Lou,” Harry said, and Louis could tell he was using his careful voice that came out when Louis was close to exploding, “just- just tell me what’s going on. You’re scaring me a bit.”

Louis stopped pacing, and his shoulders sagged as he turned to face Harry, who was still up against the stone wall looking very hesitant. Louis searched Harry’s face, and began to shake his head minutely, because he couldn’t even begin to sort out the thoughts that were flying through his brain.

“I’m scared of trolls,” is what ended up coming out. Alright, not exactly what he imagined, but he guessed it was as good a place as any to start.

The look on Harry’s face, however, said the opposite. “Tro- you’re- you’re scared of- of trolls?” Louis could tell Harry was trying so hard to keep up, to just stay calm for Louis, and even that made the thoughts in his head whirl around faster. His heart beat was picking up just looking at Harry.

“Yes, Harold, I’m scared of trolls. And I told you the first night I met you that I wasn’t, and that I could protect you if we ever met one,” Louis said.

The urge to start pacing again was growing heavy in his gut, but he forced himself to be still, taking a place on the opposite stone wall from Harry, his hands behind his back and their eyes meeting across the small space.

“Alright,” Harry said, breathing out what sounded a bit like a concealed laugh, “so what?”

“So,” Louis said, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice but not doing a very good job, “I lied to you. I lied to you because I wanted to make you feel better, and I still do that. I lie to you when you’re upset so that you won’t be upset anymore.”

Harry’s face fell.

“I- I didn’t ask,” Harry started, swallowing hard in between words, “I mean- I didn’t ask you to lie. I know I get upset sometimes, but, uh, I just- it’s. It’s not my fault you lied, Lou.”

 _Shit,_ Louis thought. He couldn’t have Harry thinking he was mad at him.

“I know, love,” Louis said, softening his voice considerably. He took his hands from where they were trapped behind his back and rubbed his face with him, muffling his voice a bit. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry.”

“Lou,” Harry said, but Louis didn’t stop rubbing his face, unable to look at the boy across from him just yet, “I’m just- I’m confused. I’m trying to understand. Did something happen?”

Louis sighed and dropped his hands, but kept his eyes closed as he blurted out, “I just don’t want to lie anymore.”

He heard Harry before he felt him, crossing the small distance between them and putting his hands on Louis’ hips. It was instinct for Louis to immediately bring his arms up around Harry’s neck, which made his heart race, and he felt like breathing was a little bit harder now with his boy so close to him.

“Hey,” Harry said gently, nudging Louis’ forehead with his own, “I know you, Lou. I know you better than anyone, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Louis said, on a sigh.

“And I know that whatever is going on in your head right now, whatever thoughts you have that are telling you that you’re a liar or that you’ve done something wrong, aren’t true. Maybe you told a couple white lies here and there, yeah? But I _know_ you Lou,” Harry put such emphasis on the word know, Louis could feel it in his gut, “and whatever it is that’s upset you, we’ll figure it out together.”  

Louis let out another sigh, and pulled his head back from where it was touching Harry’s so that he could look him in the eye.

“I lied to you, Haz,” Louis said, his quiet voice a departure from the manic energy he was displaying just moments before. Harry opened his mouth to say something, but Louis cut him off quickly, “When I said I didn’t care when you kissed someone, that it didn’t matter to me when it happened or who it was with. I lied.”

Louis could feel the flush coming over him, could feel his cheeks getting redder as the words tumbled out of his mouth. Despite feeling before this moment like the thoughts in his head weren’t at all logical, couldn’t possibly be verbalized, they seemed to be coming pretty easily now.

Louis watched as Harry’s face fell.

 “I knew it,” Harry said, his tone disappointed, “I knew I was holding you back. I’m sorry, I’m so-“

“No, Hazza,” Louis said, and he gripped Harry at the back of the neck with both his hands, putting down enough pressure that Harry’s eyes closed momentarily through a deep breath. Louis dropped his grip, and even though everything in him wanted to remain in Harry’s embrace, he forced himself to take a step away, towards the tapestry where they could hear students yelling happily to each other between classes. He kept his back to Harry as he tried to catch his breath.

“I’m sorry,” Louis said. His eyes searched all over the back of the tapestry, his brain in rapid motion, trying to figure out how to say what he needed to say to make Harry understand. He wasn’t sure he even understood at the moment. “I lied when I said I wasn’t scared of trolls, Harry, but in that moment, and ever since then, I’ve never questioned that I would keep you safe if we did ever meet one.”

Louis could feel the butterflies dancing in his stomach as he took a deep breath and turned to face Harry.

“I’ve never really thought of myself as particularly brave, but you make it so I don’t even question that I am,” Louis said, locking eyes with Harry who looked as confused as Louis felt. “And- well, uh, the truth is. I lied about not caring who you kissed, because ever since you told me that night how you felt about boys, all that’s been running through my brain is _please don’t let him kiss anyone_ ,” Louis began to walk slowly towards Harry, who was staring at him intensely.

“And at first I couldn’t figure it out,” he said, only a foot or so separating him and Harry now, as Harry backed into the stone wall with his hands behind him, “I thought I was just being a terrible friend. But I guess, what I’m trying to say is that, uh,” Louis swallowed audibly, “I just don’t want you to kiss someone unless that someone is, well, me.”

Louis watched as Harry’s eyes went round and big, his mouth falling open just slightly, and Louis’ eyes were drawn immediately to his pink lips.

There were a million things running through Louis’ head, and the noise of the students in the hallways just a few feet from them was deafening at this point, but Louis could only focus on Harry’s mouth.

 _In for a penny, in for a pound_ he thought, as he closed the space between the two boys, gently pressing his lips against Harry’s.

All the fear and anxiety that was running through his head just seconds before completely quieted down, and Louis was only aware of the point where his and Harry’s lips met. Harry’s mouth was still open a bit from his shock at Louis’ confession, so Louis’ lips mostly met his plush bottom lip. Harry froze against him and took a deep breath through his nose, and Louis was afraid he had made a mistake, but Harry quickly caught up to him and closed his mouth so that they were both pressing firmly against each other.

The kiss probably lasted no more than five seconds, but Louis was dizzy and breathless when he pulled back, as if they had been fiercely snogging one another. He glanced up into Harry’s eyes, and was overwhelmed with just how green and bright they were.

“Um,” Louis said, “surprise?”

“You,” Harry mumbled, his voice trying to find itself, “you- uh-“

“I, I- uh,” Louis said, smiling good naturedly as the teasing of his best friend came out so naturally, “Come on Harold, spit it out.”

“You like me?” Louis was nervous in that moment that Harry might possibly not feel the same way, but then a sly smile began to creep onto Harry’s face, his dimple starting to crater in his cheek.

“Well, I mean, I don’t know why. With these unruly curls,” Louis tugged on a stray lock of Harry’s hair as Harry continued to smile at him goofily, “and these gangly limbs. Don’t know what I even see you in you, to be quite honest.”

Louis couldn’t stop smiling either, and they were staring at each other without breaking eye contact.

“You couldn’t have waited until we were back in our room to tell me though? I honestly thought someone had died, Lou,” Harry said, his hands making their way around Louis’ waist to hold onto him tightly.

“Yeah, yeah,” Louis said, reaching up to touch Harry’s cheek. “We can’t all be as eloquent as you, love.”

“Well, I think we have a lot to talk about,” Harry said, “but right now, I’m just going to kiss you again. If- if that’s alright.” He looked a tiny bit hesitant, so Louis took it upon himself to bring their lips together once more.

The second kiss lasted longer than the first, but was still just as chaste and sweet. Louis figured they had plenty of time to figure everything out, and right now he just enjoyed the feeling of being so close to Harry, being allowed to touch him like this.

“It’s most definitely alright, Curly.”

\--

“Um, hello?” Harry poked his head into the potion’s classroom and glanced around at the faces staring towards the front of the room, catching eyes with Professor Garrison who smiled in recognition when Harry walked in.

“Ah, yes, Mr. Tomlinson,” the professor said, walking around from behind her large desk covered in an array of potions ingredients, “please, come in.”

As Harry made his way over, he glanced at the faces of the students seated in the classroom. There weren’t that many, maybe only fifteen total, as this was the advanced potions class for seventh years, but he still felt a few butterflies swoop around his stomach. He wasn’t particularly _nervous_ , he knew that it wasn’t quite a big deal if he messed this up, but Louis was always the one better suited to public speaking. Harry sometimes made jokes that fell flat, or tried a little too hard to get people to engage, so he had made Louis listen to his speech no less than ten times the week before they came in order to get it right.

“Thank you for having me professor,” Harry said kindly as he shook Professor Garrison’s hand.

“Absolutely,” she said in response, “it’s a real treat to have you here. I’ve just been telling my students what they might hear from you today, and we’re all very excited you’ve offered to join us.”

“Well, the pleasure is mine,” Harry said with a large smile, turning on what Louis referred to as the ‘Styles Charm’ (Harry would pout when he said it sometimes, claiming that he wasn’t trying to do anything and that he couldn’t help it, but he was secretly pleased when Louis complimented him on his magnetic personality).

“Why don’t you introduce yourself, and then we can all go around and the students can tell you their names,” the professor said, indicating her students with a wave of her arm, “I thought perhaps you might just tell us a bit about yourself, your time at Hogwarts, and what you’re doing now, and then we’ll have time for any questions that might come up. Does that sound alright?” As she said this, she took a seat among her students, indicating that it was Harry’s time to shine, and she looked up at him with rapt attention like she was just as excited to hear this as her students might be.

“That sounds perfect,” Harry said, still smiling widely. He was happy to have someone so welcoming, it put him that much more at ease in front of this group.

\--

“Right, so I’m just going to bugger off while you get this done, that alright?”

Louis had barely shook Professor Wilkes’ hand before he was attempting to exit the room.

“Uh,” Louis said, stammering a bit because he wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Excellent,” Wilkes said, not waiting for a response, “they’ve been briefed a bit about this, but whatever you’ve got really is fine.” He was already moving towards the door, not even sparing a glance for his twenty or so students. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

And with that, he was out the door. Louis stood looking at the empty doorway for a moment, a bit frozen and unsure what to do. The guy wasn’t even going to introduce him? He wasn’t going to stick around? Not that Louis was here to talk to the professors, but he had at least expected Wilkes to be around to bounce ideas off of if his class offered questions he wasn’t sure about.

Louis slowly turned towards the class, all peering at him with somewhat disinterested faces.

“Wow,” Louis said, somewhat under his breath, giving an incredulous chuckle, “Is he always like that?” He addressed the class, and most of them let out quiet laughs, some of them shaking their head in agreeance, and a few muttering things like _yes, always_ under their breath.

“Well,” Louis said, clapping his hands together and moving towards the front of the room to face them, “at least we’re in this together right?”

No one responded.

It was going to be a long hour.

\--

“Alright, well now that we’re all properly introduced, I guess I should get started,” Harry said, a wide smile on his face after hearing all the students names. “I did have an icebreaker prepared, but I’ll spare you the embarrassment.” He winked at the class, and most of them snickered appreciatively.

“Like Professor Garrison said, I’m Harry Tomlinson, and I was a student here at Hogwarts about ten years ago,” Harry settled into a comfortable stance, leaning against Garrison’s desk and crossing his arms casually. He didn’t particularly like standing over the students, but he didn’t want to sit at the professor’s desk either.

“Now I live in London with my husband Louis, and I run a bakery that specializes in magical desserts and concoctions.”  (Harry had to stifle a laugh from bubbling up, because he saw a few of the students’ faces fall the moment he said the word ‘husband’.)

“I know that ‘bakery owner’ might be a little more specific than what you’re looking into doing, but that’s okay. I assume most of you are here because you have at least somewhat of an interest in potions, am I right?” Harry looked around as most students nodded their heads in agreement. “And seeing as this is the advanced potions class, I’ll bet anything that you’re all extremely good at it.”

Harry smiled at the class, and Professor Garrison beamed, nodding her head as she fondly took in her students. They all smiled as well, looking bashful, but Harry wasn’t having it.

“Ah, come on then,” he said, “be proud about it. I want you all to give an emphatic _yes_ to that, alright? So let’s try again: I know you’re all excellent at potions, yes?”

“Yes,” the class chorused together, some of them through laughter. Harry beamed.

“Perfect,” he said, uncrossing his arms, “so that means that maybe after Hogwarts you’ll want to go into something having to do with it. When I was a seventh year, I would have been surprised, I think, to hear that I owned a bakery, but I knew at the very least that potions was my best and favorite subject, so it makes sense.”

A student in the second row raised her hand timidly, and Harry acknowledged her with a smile and nod.

“Um, sorry sir,” she said quietly.

“Please, call me Harry.”

“Alright,” she said timidly, “Harry. Um, if you don’t mind me asking – what exactly do you in a magical bakery? I- I’m muggle-born, so I can’t say I’ve ever been in one.”

Some other students murmured in agreement. Harry hadn’t started his scripted portion of the talk yet, but he was delighted that he didn’t have to. If the students were going to engage him for the full hour, he was ecstatic.

“That is an excellent question. Irene, wasn’t it?” The student smiled and nodded, blushing at Harry remembering her name. “Well, I guess I do what any muggle-bakery would do too, but my sweets contain a little something extra. We’ve got things like calming cookies, energy eclairs, and even these novelty birthday cakes for kids’ parties that make you do things like burp up colorful bubbles for an hour.”

The class chuckled appreciatively along with Harry. Another student’s hand shot up, this time less timid than Irene’s had been.

“Sir- I mean, uh, Harry,” a boy at the back of the class said, “wouldn’t the ingredients and the process of baking the treats change the composition of the potions?”

Harry smiled even more widely as he said, “Ah yes, Mark, that’s a very observant point. Professor Garrison, you must be incredibly proud.”

“I am, Harry, very proud,” Garrison said from her seat in the front row, turning around to look in Mark’s direction and give him a thumbs up.

“You’re absolutely right about the potions potentially changing, Mark,” Harry said, as he began to pace in front of the class, using his hands for emphasis as he spoke, “that’s why it’s taken me quite a long time after I left Hogwarts to really perfect my methods. You can’t just brew up a calming draught and throw it in with the cookie mix. That could be disastrous. But when I was in school, one of my favorite things to do was spend a little extra time in the potions classroom fiddling with ingredients and temperature thresholds. I don’t like to toot my own horn too much, but I’ve become quite good at altering potion recipes just slightly so that the end result will be exactly the same as if you’d drank the potion straight up.”

He could tell that he had the rapt attention of everyone in class now, people nodding along and keeping eye contact with him. A few had even begun taking some notes.

“So right after Hogwarts, I was a little bit lost to tell you the truth,” Harry leaned back against the desk, feeling much more relaxed now that he had everyone’s attention. “I jumped a bit from job to job, but my husband, well boyfriend at the time, noticed that no matter where I ended up my favorite thing to do was come home and fiddle around in the kitchen. It was him, honestly, who finally pushed me to look into a bakery.” Harry smiled at the thought of Louis.

Professor Garrison raised her hand to get Harry’s attention, and he nodded at her encouragingly.

“Harry, I was wondering if you could talk a bit about how exactly you started the bakery. It must have been a huge undertaking for someone so young.”

“Oh, it definitely was professor. I could not have done it without the help of others. My parents actually were a huge part of how I got started, because when they heard my plans for opening one, they offered to front the costs and said I could pay them back later interest-free.”

He could see that everyone was impressed with this, nodding along and whispering little _wow_ ’s under their breath.

“I know,” Harry said, chuckling, “I’ve honestly got the best mum and stepdad in the world I think. But even if your parents aren’t able to do things like that, because I honestly just got really lucky, I definitely think that there are people in our lives that will support us no matter what. It can be scary to leave Hogwarts without an idea of what you want to do, but I can assure you that no matter what your life looks like now, there’s going to be people who love and care for you that will be there at the drop of a hat.”

\--

“It’s kill or be killed out there people,” Louis said, emphasizing his point by slamming his fist into his other hand. Most students’ eyebrows raised, or eyes widened comically, but one girl looked positively catatonic with fear. “Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you. Being an auror is extremely tough and extremely dangerous, but it’s worth it if you want to do something that matters in the wizarding world.”

Louis had been pacing a bit in front of the classroom, trying hard to not let his nerves get the best of him. It had been a rough start when Professor Wilkes just fucked off and left Louis on his own, but he was starting to get into a rhythm.

“Who here feels like Defense Against the Dark Arts is their favorite or best class?”

At least three-fourths of the class put their hands in the air.

“That’s good, that’s a start,” Louis said, taking a stance in at the front of the classroom, dead center, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “But who here has actually had any experience with facing dark magic?”

Most of the hands went down. One remained up, though, a boy in the middle row who looked nervous.

“Yeah, go on then,” Louis nodded. He hadn’t bothered to ask the students their names.

“A dementor, once, when I was younger.”

“Ah, yep,” Louis said, nodding his head morosely, “dementors are nasty fuckers.”

The class tittered at Louis’ use of the word, unsure if they were allowed to acknowledge it.

“It’s okay,” he said, “you can laugh. Nobody’s going to give you shit in the real world for throwing around a couple fucks here and there.”

The class began to loosen up a bit at that, looking at each other with unsure smiles. The girl who looked fearful earlier didn’t laugh though, and Louis threw her a short, concerned glance before deciding not to worry about it.

 _Either she’ll get with it, or she won’t,_ Louis thought.

“I assume you’ve all mastered patronuses at this point?” The general murmurings and head nods spurred Louis to go on. “That’s good, but it’s not good enough.”

Wide eyes looked back at him as he prepared to go in for the kill (if they weren’t going to participate like he hoped they would, he was going to scare the shit out of them).

“I’ve been a full-time auror for four years now. My first years right out of Hogwarts were spent learning all I could at the ministry, in the department of magical law enforcement. So basically, the past ten years I’ve been knee deep in dark magic bullshit.”

Louis sighed and looked down at the ground, pausing for effect (let it never be said he didn’t have an impeccable flare for the dramatic).

“I’ve seen grown wizards ripped apart limb from limb. I’ve watched skilled, powerful aurors make miniscule mistakes that cost them everything. You haven’t seen shit until you’ve watched someone under the Cruciatus curse, their features distorted, their limbs locked up, their mouths open in a silent scream, knowing they would be begging to just be killed if they could get the words out.”

(The fearful girl was openly crying at this point. Louis barreled on.)

“You,” Louis said, pointing to a girl in the first row, “what do you do if you or someone you’re with gets bitten by a werewolf?”

The girl reddened immediately, stumbling over her words, “Um, I- uh.”

“It’s alright,” Louis said, softening his tone just slightly. He didn’t want to traumatize anyone. “You know this, I’m sure you do.”

He gave her a small smile, which she tried to return.

“Well,” she said, fidgeting a bit and tucking some loose strands of her hair behind her ears, “I think it’s- um, dittany? And- and powdered silver. You’re supposed to um, like, put that on the bites so they don’t- bleed out?”

Even though she phrased most of her answer like a question, Louis nodded along encouragingly.

“Yes,” he said, unfolding his crossed arms and pointing at her with both index fingers, “you’ve got it, exactly right. Silver bullets do nothing, people. And I’m tired of coming across non-aurors who still believe that. It’s 2017, we can do better. You’re going to turn into a werewolf if you get bit, but it’s better to be a werewolf and drink a wolfsbane potion every full moon than to bleed out in front of someone.”

Some people were still visibly uncomfortable with Louis’ brashness, but a lot of the class were nodding along. He chanced a glance at the crying girl. She seemed to have gotten her tears under control, but still looked miserable. Louis wondered briefly what he had said that set her off, but figured there was nothing to be done about it.

“Now what I want to know is, having seen what I did of your professor, what has he taught you about real-life situations with the dark arts? Is it all book work, or do you get actual, solid practice with things like counter-curses?”

The students nervously looked at each other as if they were afraid to speak up.

“Look,” Louis said, crossing his arms again, maintaining a wide stance, “whatever you share is between us. I’m not going to run and tell that sod whatever you say about him.”

Quiet chuckles erupted, and a boy in the second row tentatively raised his hand. Louis acknowledged him with a nod, and the boy took a deep breath.

“Honestly,” the boy said, looking around for validation at his classmates, “I think a lot of us feel like- I mean, like we all took this class on purpose, right? And as seventh years, I think we thought it would be a lot of hands on, but so far it’s sort of been- just, not that.”

Louis nodded, taking in his answer, “I’m not surprised, to be honest. That guy seemed like he couldn’t be bothered.”

Louis sighed, taking in the class and their disappointed expressions. It was then that he made the split second decision to change his tactics.

“Alright, everyone take out a piece of parchment,” he said, waiting as the class started shuffling around. “I know I’m supposed to be here talking about potential careers for you, and feeding you some uplifting, self-help bullshit, or whatever it is they expected of me. But none of that crap is going to matter if you don’t know what to learn or practice to excel in countering dark magic.”

People were still shuffling around, whispering to borrow quills or slips of parchments. Louis briefly looked over to the miserable girl, and she was crying steadily again. _Oh for fuck’s sake_ , he thought.

“To be honest,” Louis continued, “I wasn’t always the best student. I was a joker. Still am most of the time, if I’m being truthful. But when I really wanted something, I buckled down and I worked for it. So I’m going to tell you what you need to work on before your NEWTs, because if there’s one thing that everyone in the real world is going to be looking for if you want a job in this field, it’s high marks on NEWTs.”

\--

“NEWTs aren’t the be-all, end-all of your wizarding career, to be honest,” Harry said with a smile.

“I was a pretty decent student, all things considered. But I remember being incredibly stressed out that if I didn’t do perfectly on my NEWTs, I was never going to find a job after school, and that’s just not true.”

He could tell that his words put some of the students more at ease, and he was glad.

“Also, just because we all love potions doesn’t necessarily mean you have to end up doing something with them for your career. I loved potions in school, but I’ve also always loved photography. I thought that maybe I would be a professional photographer, work for the _Daily Prophet_ or something. It’s okay if the things you thought you loved in school just end up being hobbies.”

The class was nodding along with him, and he felt like he had the rapt attention of everyone. His meticulously written index cards (which Louis had mercilessly teased him for, and Harry had pouted about until Louis kissed him to apologize) remained in his pocket, and he was ecstatic about that.

Like clockwork, another student put their hand in the air to ask a question once Harry finished talking about standardized tests and hobbies.

“Harry, what’s your favorite part about the bakery?”

Harry smiled while he thought about it. There was honestly so much that he loved – he loved baking, he loved working with potions, and he loved fulfilling custom orders for his patrons. Mostly he just loved the freedom of it though, the early mornings spent preparing for the day, and the lazy Sunday evenings when they were closed and Louis would come help him to clean or bake while they exchanged slow kisses in the back room. His cheeks warmed up a bit thinking about that, and he forced himself to bring himself back to the present.

“You know, to be honest, I think I just love it because I’m such a people-person. Dealing with the general public on a daily basis is incredible.”

\--

“The general public is hands down the worst,” Louis said, going off on yet another tangent. He was about halfway through his list of suggested learning topics, when he found himself discussing the pros and cons of crowd control as an auror.

“Everyone within a mile radius of a blast site thinks they know exactly what happened, and isn’t afraid to tell you what you should do to handle it. I swear,” Louis said, shaking his head, “if it wasn’t morally reprehensible to use _obliviate_ on innocent passerby,” he trailed off, appreciating the laughs the class sent his way.

A tentative hand went up in the classroom, and Louis was surprised to see it was the sad girl finally participating.

“Yep, go ahead love,” Louis said, trying to be encouraging.

“Um, I was just wondering,” she said, so quietly Louis had to strain to hear her, “does being an auror get lonely?”

Louis was taken aback by the question, but didn’t break eye contact with the girl, taking in her cowering figure with a thoughtful look.

“You know, love, that’s actually a good question,” Louis spoke in a much softer voice than he had been using thus far. “I think for a lot of people it is,” he saw the girls face, unbelievably, fall even more than it had, “but I’m really lucky, see. I’m married to a wonderful man, and even though the job itself can sometimes feel lonely, you’ve got to remember you have people outside of your coworkers you can turn to. No matter how hard the job is, or how shitty a day went, I know I can always come home and Harry will be there to support me. Pick someone supportive folks.”

\--

“Trust me on this, pick someone supportive,” Harry said emphatically.

“I would never have had the success that I have if it wasn’t for my husband, Louis.” Harry smiled thinking of his spouse, wondering if Louis’ talk was going as well as his was.

Professor Garrison interrupted his reverie when she said, “Harry, I was wondering if you could give the class one last piece of advice. I know it’s hard to wrap it all up into one sentence, but what’s been the biggest thing you’ve taken from these past ten years?”

The class nodded and murmured in agreement. Harry felt a little put on the spot, but racked his brain quickly to come up with something that could be of use to the young people in front of him.

“I think it can be very easy to fall into what others expect of you: to try and look like you think you should, or talk like you think you should, and especially to pick a career just because you ‘think you should’. I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned, both from my time at Hogwarts and the ten years since, is to stay true to yourself.”

\--

“Advice? You don’t take advice from strangers lad- I almost got me dick bitten off by a manticore once from taking a stranger’s advice.”

The silence following Louis’ statement was deafening.

He cleared his throat, “That was a joke. You were supposed to laugh.”

He could see the tension deflate in the room once he said that, and people let out some halfhearted giggles. He turned back to the boy who asked the question in the first place.

“Look, you want some advice? My honest to God advice is this: fuck what others think about you.”

Multiple jaws dropped open at that, and Louis had to hold back a laugh.

“I’m not saying that it’s not important to be considerate of others, or to have people around you who support you like I said earlier. What I’m saying is that this is- this is it. This is your last year at Hogwarts, and after this you’re going to be out there in the real world. You shouldn’t waste your time worrying about other people’s opinions of you. There’s a time to be concerned with that, and there’s a time to be brave. And now is the time to be brave.”

Louis was back to emphasizing his points with a fist to his other hand.

“Don’t let anyone, for one single second, let you think that you can’t do something. You want to be an auror? Fucking do it, mates. It’s scary as shit, and it’s hard as fuck, but I don’t regret my decision to try, and neither will you.”

This time the silence that followed wasn’t one of fear, but of possibility.

\--

Professor Garrison stood up and faced her class, “Well, I think we are all in agreement when we say thank you so much, Harry, for coming to speak with us today. It was truly delightful.”

The class began to applaud along with their professor, and Harry blushed heavily. Some people even cheered.

“Thank you so much,” Harry said, placing his palms together in a gesture of gratitude, “I have truly enjoyed myself. Honestly, I’ve been looking forward to this for quite some time, and it turned out so much better than expected. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

\--

“Well, this has been- uh, certainly something,” Louis said, hands on his hips, surveying the class one last time. “I hope this wasn’t the worst hour you’ve had to endure this year, at the very least.” Not one for heartfelt moments in front of large groups, Louis tried to wrap it up quickly.

“It’s been real, folks,” he said, and turned to leave abruptly, before a girl in the first row stood up and called for him.

“Wait, Mr. Tomlinson,” she said, and Louis turned round quickly to look at her with eyebrows raised.

 _Uh oh,_ he thought, _here it comes- they’re going to crucify me._

“Um,” she said, looking more nervous than Louis felt, “I- well, we, I mean I think I can say we, as a class that is-“

“Spit it out, love,” Louis said good-naturedly.

She smiled and let out a breath, “I think this was the best class we’ve had this year.”

“Hear, hear,” someone shouted from the back row.

“Absolutely,” said the boy who had faced down the dementor. Louis cursed himself when he realized he didn’t ask a single person’s name.

“So, what I’m trying to say,” the girl continued, “is thank you. From all of us.”

She began to applaud, which surprised Louis, but it was nothing compared to his shock when the entire class (including the crying girl, who was now sobbing in earnest) began to join in, and even stood up to give him an ovation.

He had no idea what to say, so he just took a little bow, smiled and waved at them, and exited the room quickly, disbelief coursing through him.

\--

Harry noticed as he walked towards the stairs and away from the dungeons that he hadn’t taken up the full hour like he thought he would. He felt satisfied with how everything had gone though, so he figured it wasn’t such a big deal. Now he’d be able to meet Louis right outside of his classroom instead of waiting for him in the entrance hall. Maybe he could even catch some of Louis’ talk.

He grinned as he thought about the great talk Louis must be giving the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. He knew that Louis was a little hesitant about doing it, but Harry had no doubt that the students would love his husband.

Making his way up to the third floor, he smiled politely at the portraits that were flitting in and out of their frames, laughing and gossiping with each other. He really did miss this place, sometimes.

Coming up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, he could hear some voices from inside, but it just sounded like low mutterings from in the hallway. He didn’t know if he should try and sneak closer to the door, and possibly catch a glimpse of Louis in action, or if he should wait for his husband quietly and let him tell Harry how it went.

His decision was made for him when he heard a thunderous applause, followed very shortly by Louis stumbling out the door with a confused smile on his face.

Harry’s eyes widened as he took in both his husband and the classroom full of students behind him, all standing on their feet.

Just as he was about to open his mouth and say something, the class period ended, and students began to pour out from doorways all around them, surrounding them with chatter.

“How did it go?” he asked, still not having gotten any hints from Louis’ face.

“Obviously it went amazing, Harold,” Louis said, reaching for Harry’s hand, “Was there any doubt I would smash it?”

Immediately after finishing his sentence a young girl burst out of the classroom behind Louis, pushing through her peers, sobbing her eyes out.

Harry and Louis both took her in, watching as she rushed through the crowd and disappeared behind the many bodies. Harry looked at Louis in confusion, about to voice his concerns before Louis cut him off.

“Teenagers, am I right?” Louis said casually, “So bloody sensitive. You hungry? Let’s go.”

And with that, he pulled Harry through the groups of students by his hand, Harry too shocked to utter a word.

\--

“For the last time, Harry,” Louis said emphatically, walking down the staircase towards the entrance hall with Harry’s hand still held firmly in his, “I didn’t _do_ anything to her.”

Harry had immediately questioned what Louis’ involvement had been in terrorizing this young student, a theory which Louis swiftly rebuffed.

“She was crying basically the whole time I spoke,” he said, looking at his husband briefly to see the disbelief written on his face, “and I honestly couldn’t tell you what I said to make her that way. She asked me a question, and even clapped for me at the end, so I don’t know what you want from me. And I can tell you don’t believe me, but I’m telling the truth.”

They reached the end of the stairs and stopped off to the side in the entrance hall, students milling about, some chatting with friends and others heading into the Great Hall for what was clearly the beginning of the lunch period.

“I believe you, Lou,” Harry said, rubbing his thumb soothingly over Louis’ knuckles, “I’m just worried about her is all.”

“Well, that’s very sweet of you Haz,” Louis said, reaching up with his free hand to tug on one of Harry’s curls, “but I promise there’s nothing either of us could say. I’m sure she was just- I don’t know, having a bad day or something. Now let’s stop talking about her so I can hear how your talk went.”

Harry beamed at him.

“Honestly, Lou,” Harry said, excitement bubbling out of him rapidly, “it was amazing. I didn’t have to pull out my notecards at all.”

“Well thank goodness for that, the shame would be unbearable to our family Haz,” Louis muttered under his breath, but Harry barreled on.

“They asked such great questions, and I think I really inspired some of them to explore potion making in the future. It was just- I mean, I just can’t even describe it.” His smile was blinding, and Louis smiled back at him.

“I’m proud of you, love,” Louis said, rubbing his hand not clasped in Harry’s over his hipbone. “Other than the waterworks display, mine actually went okay too.”

“Just okay?”

“Alright,” Louis said sheepishly, “it turned out bloody brilliant, is that what you want to hear?”

“That’s exactly what I want to hear, baby,” Harry said, his dimple popping out in full force.

“Well,” Louis grumbled, “they seemed to like it anyway. But don’t think I’ve forgotten about your promise to make me tea in bed. It’s still your fault we’re here instead of naked together in our own home.”

A group of girls passing by, who looked to be in sixth or seventh year, burst out laughing, having clearly overheard Louis’ admission.

Harry’s eyes got wide, and he pinched Louis’ side as hard as he could, “Really Lou? Second time today.”

“Ouch,” Louis said, batting Harry’s hand away, “it’s not my fault you keep forcing me to be in public, around people who can hear me, I mean honestly Harold what did you expect?”

Louis grinned, and Harry rolled his eyes, tugging Louis along with him as he made his way to the front door.

Just before they made it there, Louis pulled on Harry’s hand to stop him short.

“What’s wrong love?” Harry asked, turning towards Louis with a quizzical look on his face.

Louis wore an expression mixed between a smirk and something deeply mischievous.

“Oh no,” Harry said, shaking his head already, “I don’t know what you’re planning, but the answer is no.”

“Oh Harold,” Louis said, yanking on Harry’s hand and pulling him away from the door towards a different corridor, “don’t be so dramatic.”

\--

Louis definitely had a plan, and if he executed it well enough he would be leaving Hogwarts a much happier man. The trouble was convincing his husband, who was doing everything in his power currently to persuade Louis to just leave.

“Lou,” Harry whined, dragging his feet in an almost-perfect imitation of what Louis had been like that morning (Louis still refused to feel guilty about that), “seriously, where are you taking me?”

“I told you Haz,” Louis said, adopting a casual air, “you got to see the dungeons and reminisce about all our good times in the Slytherin common room, and I had to get stuck up on the stuffy third floor. It’s only fair that I get to peak around a bit down here too.”

“But I didn’t even _see_ the dormitory, Louis,” Harry was getting more and more agitated the closer they got to the common room entrance. He really didn’t want to know what Louis was planning. “So it doesn’t even make sense to drag me down here, because all we’re going to do is stare at the entrance and then leave. Right?”

He uttered the last word with a tone that said _oh please let me be right_.

Louis just snickered and kept dragging an unwilling Harry behind him.

“Louis, seriously, stop,” Harry said, raising his voice a bit, “What are we doing?”

Louis sighed and pulled Harry off into a secluded alcove, not far from the Slytherin common room entrance.

“Harold, my love,” Louis said sweetly, “do you trust me?”

“No,” Harry said, with zero hesitation, “Not at all. Not even a little bit.”

Louis rolled his eyes as he said, “Fair enough, but do you love me? Enough to just go with the flow for a bit?”

Harry groaned.

“That’s an unfair question, Lou,” he said, rubbing his face with both his hands in frustration, “Of course I love you, but-“

“Perfect,” Louis said, cutting him off, “that’s all I need to hear.”

Louis took out his wand and quickly tapped Harry over the head, following the movement with an identical one to himself. He shuddered as the sensation of an egg cracking over his head ran over his body.

“Why am I disillusioned, Louis?” Harry asked, the flat tone of his voice saying _you’d better have a good explanation for this_.

Louis looked in Harry’s direction, seeing only the wall behind him but assuming he was addressing his husband’s face.

“Harry,” Louis said, lowering his voice a bit, reaching out to feel for Harry’s hand. Once he made contact, he felt Harry jump a bit out of surprise, having not seen Louis reach for him.

“Haz, baby,” Louis said, coming closer to Harry’s body, crowding him up against the wall despite not being able to see him.

“Lou,” Harry said, his tone warning.

Louis kissed him before he had a chance to say anything else. It seemed for a second like Harry might protest, but he soon sunk into it, sighing into Louis’ mouth.

Louis pressed further into Harry, positioning himself so that one of Harry’s thighs was between his legs. He coaxed Harry’s mouth open with his tongue, and their warm, wet mouths slid against each other, Louis moaning into it.

“Shh,” Harry said, pulling back only enough to mutter the words before he was diving back in for more, “Lou, someone might hear.”

“Don’t care Haz,” Louis was quickly becoming breathless, “Want you so badly, always want you.”

Harry whined into his mouth, probably feeling too much at once just like Louis was. Louis let his hands roam over Harry’s body, his fingers teasing at his sides.

“Can’t feel you like I want to through these robes,” Louis complained between kisses.

“Louis,” Harry said, clearly not wanting to stop kissing, “we- we can’t.”

Harry sounded desperate and breathless.

“Follow my lead, babe,” Louis said, pulling back from the kiss abruptly and grabbing Harry’s hand to get him to follow.

“No, Lou,” Harry said, whining, “please, let’s just stay here.”

“Shh,” Louis reassured him as best he could without being able to see his face, “if you stay quiet for just a few minutes, I’ll make it worth it, I promise.”

He could almost hear the war going on in Harry’s head, his husband clearly wanting to get Louis to leave the castle, but also not wanting to give up the chance to keep touching him right this second.

Louis knew he could seal the deal, smirking (even though Harry couldn’t see his face) as he said, “I just couldn’t stop thinking about that dormitory of ours, Haz. Be a shame to pass up the chance for you to fuck me in it one more time.”

Louis heard an audible gulp come from the direction of Harry’s throat, and he chuckled.

“Come on babe,” he said, coaxing Harry even more, “everyone’s at lunch, nobody’s going to know.”

“Lou,” Harry said, his voice sounding rough and gravelly, “that’s insane.”

Louis took his hand from where it was clasping Harry’s and slid it up his husband’s arm, delicately touching his neck. He brought his body flush against Harry’s, and leaned up on his tip toes to whisper in his ear.

“I think you like the idea,” he said coyly, listening for Harry’s quickening breaths, “You always loved dragging me places around this castle where we might get caught. All I can think about is your big cock filling me up. We’d have to be quick though, in case someone came back in and found me bent over for you, all full up with you.”

“Fuck,” Harry breathed out.

Louis knew then that he had won.

“Alright, let’s go,” Harry said, his voice sounding strained, “hurry up.”

“Oh, now who’s pushy?” Louis asked with a smile.  

“Louis,” Harry whined, and Louis knew he would have to guide Harry where he wanted him. He was sure if he could see his eyes, they would be glazed over with lust, his cheeks a deep pink and his pupils big.

Taking the lead, Louis grabbed Harry’s hand once again and pulled them out of the alcove. He was hoping someone would be leaving the Slytherin dormitory to head upstairs to lunch at the right time (he wasn’t going to tell Harry that he had no actual plan on getting into the common room, but if worst came to worst he supposed they could always just seclude themselves back in that alcove).

Luck was on Louis’ side, though, when they approached the entrance to the common room, and two girls were happily chatting away as they left the Slytherin dormitory behind, discussing what they were going to do after lunch.

Louis felt Harry’s hand in his (still slack from being overwhelmed with desire), and he yanked on him to get him to follow.

Once inside, Louis paused to take in the room around him causing Harry to run into him, back to chest.

“Oof,” Louis breathed out, and a couple of younger students coming down the stairs from their dormitories paused their conversation to look around. Not seeing anything, they continued on their way, and Louis pulled Harry out of their path to avoid an unwelcome collision.

Once they were in a corner of the common room, Harry began kissing at Louis’ neck from behind him, nipping at his jaw and teasing him with little licks of his tongue.

Louis sighed and sagged his weight back into his husband’s broad chest, where his strong arms wrapped around to secure him by the waist.

“Haz,” he breathed out, “come on, let’s get into a room. Can’t make noises like I want to out here.”

Harry’s breathing was heavy and erratic, but he hummed a quiet agreement as he continued to suck marks into Louis’ (currently invisible) neck.

Louis pulled an almost-boneless Harry into the closest dormitory he could find, checking to make sure that it was indeed empty, and casting a quick _colloportus_ at the door. Thinking for an extra second, he threw in an obligatory _muffliato_. He could get loud, and he wasn’t in the mood to try and stay quiet.

“That should buy us a tiny bit of time if someone tries to come back in,” he said, as he pulled Harry farther into the dorm.

“Lou,” Harry whined, “want to see you.”

“Alright, love,” Louis said, and took out his wand to remove the disillusionment charm from both of them.

Louis was right- Harry’s face already looked well fucked without even having touched each other properly.

Louis could tell right away he would have to take charge of this situation. Sometimes when Harry got too overwhelmed with lust he was absolutely useless to make decisions.

“Get your kit off, babe,” Louis said, already discarding his robe on the floor haphazardly, “want to touch you properly.”

Harry followed suit immediately, ridding himself of his bulky robe, and already starting to unbutton his shirt as Louis threw his t-shirt onto the ground.

Louis pushed into Harry’s space and began to unbutton his shirt for him, pushing his hands out of the way as Harry immediately went to start undoing Louis’ trousers.

“Wish we had more time,” Louis said, concentrating on the minute changes in Harry’s facial expressions as he continued to talk, “would get you laid out on one of these beds, maybe tie you up so I could ride you properly.”

Harry whined, the noise animalistic and deep. He surged forward to kiss Louis thoroughly, his tongue exploring Louis’ mouth reverently.

Louis pulled back and took a deep breath, continuing in his pursuit of undressing the both of them.

“Wouldn’t let you touch until you made me come, think you could do that?”

“Yes, yes, god Louis,” Harry said, clearly flustered with what was happening.

“Don’t have time for that babe,” Louis said, smiling up at his husband as Harry helped Louis step out of his trousers, yanking down his pants in one go too. “Gonna have to be quick and dirty, I guess.”

Now completely naked, Louis backed up from Harry. He watched as his husband’s eyes followed him hungrily, and he turned around as he reached one of the four poster beds in the room.

Grabbing on to one of the posts, he arched his back sinfully and looked over his shoulder in a move he knew would drive Harry crazy.

“You just going to stand there, Harold? Or are you going to come over here and get me nice and wet?”

Harry’s eyes got wide, but Louis could see the moment that clarity struck him – Harry went from a dazed lust to an almost manic determination, chucking his pants to the side and striding over to Louis confidently.

Louis loved when he could get Harry to this place, this raw and unfiltered determination to fuck Louis into oblivion.

Harry dropped down to his knees without preamble behind Louis, and Louis sucked in a harsh breath as he felt the first broad swipe of Harry’s tongue over him.

Louis turned to face the post he was holding onto, his forehead dropping onto the polished wood as he pushed his hips back into Harry’s face, relishing the feeling of his tongue.

“Ah, yeah babe, that’s it- fuck,” Louis struggled to get words out as Harry relentlessly tongued at his hole, making a mess of him with saliva that Louis could feel dripping down his thighs.

“Fuck, so filthy aren’t you love?” Louis was grinding his hips back, and Harry was keeping up, holding Louis open with his broad hands, kneading into his flesh in time with his licks.

Louis whined when Harry pulled back slightly to utter, “Such a fucking tease, Lou.”

Louis couldn’t respond, was reduced to harsh breaths and could only utter, “Yeah, fu- fuck yeah, like that.”

“Couldn’t even wait until we got home, could you?”

Louis moaned as Harry dove back in between talking to him, riling him up just like Louis had done to him.

“Think you can fluster me like that and I’ll just go along with it?”

Louis was whining now, steadily getting louder in his lust, as Harry pushed his tongue inside him. Louis let out a yelp which quickly turned into a groan of pleasure.

“Always try so hard to be in charge,” Harry continued, now circling his thumb over Louis’ spit slicked hole, “but I know you.”

“Haz, don’t- don’t stop,” Louis begged, trying to grind back into Harry’s face, but Harry wouldn’t let him.

“You’re so big and bad before we get started, but all I have to do is get you all wet and messy and you’re practically begging for it. Begging me to fuck you in a public place. In a dormitory of all places. That’s just filthy, Lou.”

Harry’s deep voice was gravelly and full of lust, and Louis could only answer him in clipped phrases.

“Yeah,” he whined, “Fu- fuck. I’m filthy. Please Haz, please just don’t stop.”

“I won’t stop babe,” Harry said, diving back in, “won’t stop until I make you come.”

“Want- want you inside me,” Louis gasped, as Harry’s tongue continued in its ministration of Louis’ body. “Want you to fuck me. Wasn’t- wasn’t lying about wanting your cock in me.”

Harry pushed a spit covered finger gently into Louis’ hole, without much intent behind it, simply exploring. Louis, however, gasped and pushed back onto him.

“Yes, please Haz,” Louis said, shielding his eyes in the crook of his elbow, still bent over and arched harshly for Harry.

“Don’t have any stuff with me, love,” Harry said, a hint of regret in his voice.

“I- ah fuck,” Louis said, as Harry gently licked around Louis’ hole where his finger still explored, “I brought some, check my pockets.”

“You cheeky devil,” Harry laughed as he removed himself quickly from behind his husband to search his discarded robes. Coming back quickly with a small sachet of lube, he placed his free hand on Louis’ hip, still arched out obscenely, and rubbed his hard cock in the cleft of Louis’ ass.

“This what you want?” Harry asked, relishing the feeling of grinding against Louis’ sweat slicked body, “Want me to fill you up?”

“Yeah- please, Haz,” Louis begged, breathless, “want you to fuck me hard. Make me come.”

Harry needed no further instructions, slicking up his fingers with the lube and spreading Louis’ cheeks with his free hand. Slipping one long finger inside of him, he continued to babble on about how crazy Louis made him.

“Can’t believe we’re doing this,” he said, opening Louis up quickly and adding a second finger as soon as he was ready, scissoring them gently as he listened for Louis’ sounds of pleasure, “You’ve been thinking about this all day haven’t you? Was your plan all along, huh? Get me back down here, relive our memories of fucking in this dorm room?”

Louis could only agree in breathless murmurs and nods of his head.

“Remember when you fucked me for the first time?” Harry continued, not really thinking about what he was saying, just trying to get Louis as wound up as he felt.

“You were so good, Lou,” he said, adding a third finger and relishing the way Louis was panting and squirming now, wanting Harry to give him more. “But that was then, yeah? Now look at you. Always wanting to get fucked, wanting to be filled up, huh?”

“Fu- fuck, Harry,” Louis said, his thighs starting to shake from all he was feeling.

“I always take care of you, don’t I Lou?” Harry relentlessly fucked his fingers into and out of Louis, and Louis could hardly stand it anymore.

“Al- always, Haz,” Louis breathed out, “Please- please fuck me. Right now.”

Harry quickly removed his fingers and slicked up his cock, already leaking from how badly he wanted to be inside Louis.

Louis held his breath as he felt the head of Harry’s cock circling his hole, Harry teasing him a bit with it. Louis pushed back his hips slightly, relishing the feel of Harry’s thickness pushing slightly into him. It was always good with Harry, always perfect, but Louis never got over that overwhelming feeling of just how big Harry was.

Finally, Harry grasped Louis’ hip tightly and guided himself past Louis’ rim, stretching him obscenely with his cock.

“Fuck yes,” Louis hissed out, releasing the breath he had been holding.

“Shit, Louis,” Harry said, slowly pressing into him inch by inch, “you feel so fucking good.”

The next moment, only their ragged breathing could be heard, both of them relishing the feel of Harry being inside Louis finally.

Once Louis adjusted to the stretch, he began to grind his hips back minutely, encouraging Harry to start thrusting into him with shallow movements.

“Fuck yeah, Haz,” Louis said, feeling Harry’s drives deepen, until he was finally fucking into him in earnest. Louis continued to hold onto the bedpost, and he shut his eyes as the pleasure washed over him. “You’re so good, baby. Always so good to me.”

“I love you,” Harry whispered, “Love your body.” Each confession was punctuated with a thrust of his hips, meeting Louis’ sweaty skin and relishing in the little _unh, unh_ s that Louis couldn’t help but release. “Love fucking you, your tight little arse.”

Louis moaned, and Harry reached around with the hand that wasn’t firmly holding Louis’ hip to shove two fingers into Louis’ mouth. Without question, Louis opened up for him and began sucking, moaning around them obscenely.

“Gotta be quiet, Lou,” Harry said, despite the _muffliato_ charm on the door, “can’t let people hear you. Can’t let them know you’ve been naughty, bent over with my cock in you. Fucking you.”

Louis almost couldn’t hear Harry’s filthy words over the buzzing in his ears, his mind focused on the pleasure coursing through him, the heat building in his gut. He knew that Harry didn’t really want him to be quiet, always begged Louis to let out his beautiful noises when Harry was fucking him, so he continued to moan around Harry’s fingers in his mouth, staccato grunts escaping him every time Harry pounded him harder.

“So filthy, Louis,” Harry continued, obviously savoring the way his dirty talk was effecting Louis. “Gonna come for me, baby? Want to make you come, want to come inside you, mark you up, everyone will know you’re mine.”

Louis could feel his orgasm building quickly, and he let go of the post with one hand to quickly fist at his own leaking cock.

“Yeah,” Harry continued, removing his fingers from Louis’ mouth to rub and pinch at his nipple which made Louis cry out in pleasure, “touch yourself. Want to see you come. So pretty when you come for me.”

Louis’ breath was ragged, and he matched the rhythm Harry was fucking him with to strip his cock, his fist tightly gripping himself.

“So close, Lou,” Harry whispered into his ear, his body now bent over Louis’, enveloping him with his broad chest and arm wrapped around his middle. “Gonna come inside you, get you all nice and wet, have you dripping like you like it.”

That was all it took for Louis to cry out loudly, come spurting over his fingers as his body clenched up. He could feel Harry pounding into him quickly, only needing a few more thrusts before he stilled and came inside Louis.

They both took a moment to catch their breath, Louis’ body shaking with vibrations that were still happening even after he was done coming.

“Shit,” Harry laughed out, as he gently pulled out of Louis’ messy hole, “can’t believe we just did that.”

Louis was still bent over at the waist, head pillowed in his forearms which were resting against the bedpost. He was breathing heavily, but his shoulders shook as he let out a quiet chuckle.

“That was amazing, babe,” Louis said, finally lifting his head up to turn around and look at his husband who was already gathering their things up for them.

“Come on, Lou,” Harry said, taking out his wand and using _scourgify_ to try and clean them up a bit, “gotta get dressed, don’t know how long we’ve been down here.”

“Oh, now you’re worried about getting caught?” Louis joked, standing up and stretching his back, his muscles protesting from being bent over for so long. “Fuck, gonna feel that for a week,” he said, his hands coming down to press on his lower back as he arched backwards to stretch.

“Like that wasn’t your goal,” Harry rolled his eyes at his husband, but softened the blow by coming up to him and gently kissing him, slowly opening his mouth with his tongue as Louis’ hands came up to caress Harry’s pink cheeks.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Louis said between lazy kisses, “come on, let’s go home love. Still expecting that tea, to be honest.”

Harry huffed as Louis dodged the t-shirt he threw at him.

\--

Walking back upstairs towards the entrance hall, Louis couldn’t stop stealing glances at Harry, who would be looking right back at him. They kept bursting into giggles, sometimes needing to stop and lean against a wall to catch their breath.

“I still can’t believe you Lou,” Harry wheezed out, leaning against a stone wall to catch his breath.

“Shh, Harold, not the place,” Louis laughed, squeezing Harry’s hand gently, “but that was bloody fantastic.” He added the last part quickly, under his breath.

Harry smiled broadly and turned to keep walking towards the exit.

Louis was extremely satisfied with how the day went, if he did say so himself.

They were almost to the front door when Louis heard a small voice behind them, a girl clearing her throat and asking, “Um, excuse me? Mr. Tomlinson?”

Louis and Harry both whipped around at the sound, and Louis was surprised to find the crying girl standing off to the side of the entrance hall. The Great Hall was still buzzing with students eating lunch, but the entrance hall was filling up with students milling about before their next classes. The girl was by herself, quietly standing and watching Louis and Harry with wide eyes.

“Um, yes, hi,” Louis said, not sure of the girls name. He gave Harry a look and held up a finger to say _one moment_ , shuffling over towards the girl while Harry looked on, confused.

“Um,” the girl stammered, not quite able to look Louis in the eye, “I’m Violet. I was- I was in the class earlier.”

“Yeah, of course love,” Louis said gently, placing a hand on her shoulder, “I remember you. Y’alright?”

“I just,” Violet started, her eyes welling up.

 _Oh shit, not again_ Louis thought.

“I’m sorry I was such a mess in there,” she said quietly, staring at her feet, “I just- I’m not really sure what came over me.”

“Hey,” Louis said, softly, “it’s alright Violet, happens to the best of us, yeah?”

Violet huffed out a small laugh, and took a deep breath.

“I guess,” she said, shrugging one shoulder, “it’s just that- see, my- my dad was an auror.”

Louis’ stomach dropped, worried where this was going.

“And he- he died when I was younger, between my second and third year here. I thought maybe you even knew him? Green? Gideon Green?”

 _Fuck_ , Louis thought, _shit, shit, shit_.

“Oh,” Louis said, trying to control his tone, “Yeah, I uh- I did know him, actually. Good man, he was.”

“Yeah,” Violet said, trailing off.

Neither of them said it. Neither of them had to.

 _Your dad was killed in the line of duty_.

The thoughts swam around Louis’ head. He wasn’t sure what to say, if he should even try to speak.

“So, I uh,” Violet continued, chancing a glance up at Louis’ eyes, “I just- when you came in and started talking, I just couldn’t stop thinking about my dad. Thinking about how hard it must have been for him. And I’ve sort of always thought maybe I could be an auror, too, ya know?”

Louis nodded, encouraging her to keep talking.

“But I worry that I’m not cut out for it, not when,” Violet’s voice broke, and her eyes filled with tears again, “not when someone as good as my dad couldn’t even make it out alive.”

Louis’ heart broke for her. He stole a glance at Harry, who was nearby, but keeping a respectful distance. His brow was furrowed and he was chewing on his thumb carefully. Louis could tell he had heard everything.

“Look, Violet,” Louis said, crouching down lower to get a good look at her face, “your dad, I didn’t know him well, right? I was just starting as a full time auror back then, but here’s what I do know: he was good. _Really_ good, okay?”

Violet nodded her head to indicate she was listening, spurring Louis to continue.

“What happened to him, it was,” Louis swallowed heavily, “well it was shit, to be honest. But it wasn’t his fault. Not at all.”

Violet’s tears were falling in earnest now, and Louis was struggling to keep his voice from breaking.

“And I’m so sorry that happened to you, that you lost your dad that young,” Louis couldn’t help a few stray tears from falling, but he quickly wiped them away to keep talking. “But I hope that doesn’t stop you from being an auror. If anything, I know your dad would be so wickedly proud of you for going for it no matter what.”

Violet smiled a bit through her tears, and rubbed at her streaked cheek furiously with one hand.

“That was- that was why I asked that question,” she said, sighing a bit, “about it being lonely.”

Louis stared at her intently.

“My mom doesn’t like to talk about it much,” she continued, “I mean- we talk about him. Don’t get me wrong. But I just never hear about his job, right? I just wondered if- if he loved it as much as I hoped he did. I didn’t want him to be lonely out there, ya know?”

Louis nodded.

“Absolutely,” Louis said, “I understand. And I’ve seen aurors that do get lonely, but I can promise that if he had someone at home, like you and your mom, he wasn’t lonely love. That I do know.”

Violet smiled again, this time a bit bigger, and let out a large breath. She turned her head and caught the eye of Harry, who was still staring at the pair with fierce concern written on his features.

“You’re lucky, huh?” Violet asked, indicating his husband standing off behind them.

Louis didn’t even have to look at Harry to know what she meant.

“Yeah,” he said, smiling wide, “I really am.”

“You know, your talk kind of scared the shit out of me too,” she said, chuckling.

“Shit,” Louis said, standing up straight once again but still keeping a hand on her shoulder, “don’t listen to me Vi, I’m a complete tosser sometimes.”

Violet smiled at the nickname, and giggled at Louis’ self-deprecating humor.

“Nah,” she said reassuringly, “it was good. Really good, I just- I hope I can make it, ya know?”

Louis thought for a moment, then reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a small business card.

“Well look,” he said, handing the white card to Violet, “you get in touch with me whenever you want okay? I mean that. Don’t just hold onto that card and not do anything about it. Send me an owl whenever you have questions. I don’t care what they’re about, okay? Talk to me about studying for NEWTs or practical countercurses. Anything you want. Promise?”

Violet turned the card over and looked back up at Louis with gratitude, “I will. Thank you so much. I- I don’t know how to say how much I appreciate it.”

Louis shrugged, “Eh, don’t worry about it. And save your thanks until I actually provide you with some sound advice, not just some bullshit in front of a class, okay?”

Violet laughed again, and Louis was relieved she seemed to be feeling better. He was taken aback when she abruptly wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.

“Thanks Mr. Tomlinson.”

“Please,” he said, hugging her back tightly, “call me Louis.”

He made sure she was going to be okay (which she firmly assured him she was) before ushering her off to her next class with promises to keep in touch.

Watching her walk away with a small smile on his face, he didn’t notice Harry coming up behind him until his strong arms were wrapped around Louis’ middle. Louis brought his hands up to cover Harry’s where they rested against his belly.

“You’re bloody brilliant, you know that?” Harry whispered into his ear, making Louis blush.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, love,” Louis said, modestly trying to brush off the compliment.

Harry knew Louis well enough to know that he wasn’t going to respond to more praise, so Harry just nodded his head and smiled at him, unwrapping himself from around his middle and grasping his hand tightly.

“Come on love,” Harry said, guiding Louis towards the front door, “I believe I owe you some tea.”

Louis smiled and exited the castle with Harry, happy to be hand in hand with the person he loved most.


End file.
